Since the release of Windows 8, we’ve had to get ourselves acquainted with Microsoft’s latest OS. Windows 8 is a huge leap for Microsoft and vastly different from Windows 7, XP and Vista. We’ve come up with 10 tips and tricks to make the transition a bit less jarring for you. 1. Explore the Edges of […]

Since the release of Windows 8, we’ve had to get ourselves acquainted with Microsoft’s latest OS. Windows 8 is a huge leap for Microsoft and vastly different from Windows 7, XP and Vista. We’ve come up with 10 tips and tricks to make the transition a bit less jarring for you.

1. Explore the Edges of a New Universe: The Touchscreen

It sounds odd, but the edges of the touchscreen are very important to Windows 8. There are a lot of important and useful functions in Windows 8 that aren’t obvious at first glance. A swipe from the left edge, for instance, will show you your most recently used applications, making it much easier to switch between multiple apps.

A swipe from the right edge opens the Charms bar, which I’ll explain in the next section, while a swipe from top to bottom closes an application. A swipe in the middle of the screen allows you to dock an application on either the left or right of the display.

2. Charms Bar = Start Menu

For decades we had a comforting start up screen staring us in the face every time we turned on our Windows computers. Now a bunch of colorful tiles pop up. Where are my applications? Where is the search function? Where is my network status? Don’t panic, it’s all hiding in the Charms bar.

When you swipe from the right side of the screen, out comes the Charms bar. It’s here that you’ll find options like Start, Search, Share, Devices and Settings. And now at the bottom left of the screen, the date and time are displayed and (gasp) they’re legible!

Everything that used to be accessible via the start menu is now conveniently located in the Charms bar. It takes some getting used to, but in the end, the method of operation feels streamlined and simplified.

For example, you can search for a specific picture or file and easily email it using the Share button. The different buttons in the Charms bar work together and are intended to make the user experience easier. The sooner you make friends with the Charms bar, the better.

3. Shortcuts

Windows 8 is obviously optimized for touchscreens, but should you prefer your mouse and keyboard, there are many shortcuts that allow you to make the most of Windows 8 without having to get your hands dirty. With the Windows key you can switch between the program and the tiles on the start screen. The following is a list of the shortcuts:

These are only the shortcuts that can be used in conjunction with the Windows button. You can find more here.

4. Direct to Desktop Mode

So you have worked through the first three points but still think that it would be much nicer to start immediately in the desktop mode? Well, you can if you disable the auto login. You are allowed to do so only when Windows starts. After entering the password, do not press the arrow next to your name, hit the Enter key instead (you have to hold it down for more than one second). This will automatically open the app, which is hidden behind the top-left tile of the start screen. The desktop application will open before the actual start screen appears. If the auto login is active, there are still ways to boot directly to the desktop. You can find information about it at DrWindows, to whom I also owe this first desktop-Tip.

5. Get the Classic Start Menu Back

Microsoft understands your nostalgia. You can get the classic start menu back if you and the tiles don’t get along. Classic Shell is one tool, which you can download here. It looks like this:

There doesn’t have to be an app behind every tile. A tile may also be a contact, a link to a page or a folder. To add a tile to the start screen, you have to open the App Bar in the application (just swipe from the left) and then press or click on “pin to start”. You can also get rid of an app from the start screen this way. In this case, the application will not be deleted, it just disappears from the first start screen. You can also enlarge or shrink the tiles and you can group or arrange the tiles on the start screen via the App Bar.

7. Create Your Own Tile

To truly customize Windows 8, some of you will want to customize your tiles. This is not possible with available materials, but at Caschy and Casi found a way to create a few tiles. To do this you need a freeware called OblyTile, which can be found on the XDA-Developers forum. You can then use your own pictures (must be 120×120 and PNG), icons or ObyTile’s templates to make the start screen more your style.

8. Two Apps Parallel to One Another

Windows users are all used to having multiple windows open at the same time, but Windows 8 is a different creature. You can, however, use two apps at once side by side. You open the first app and then use the app bar and and pull out a second app and pale it beside the other ( a separation bar must appear). Using this bar you can adjust the size of each application in relation to the other.

That way your inbox can always be open and a larger window can sit beside it while you surf the web. Your screen resolution has to be set at 1366×768 for this parallel view to function properly.

9. Media Center/DVD PlayBack

If you are desperately looking for the Media Center, stop looking – it is not installed by default. Basically, you need it to play your DVDs and Blu-Rays on Windows. Next year you will have to pay extra for the Media Center, but until the end of January 2013, Microsoft has made the Windows 8 Media Center pack downloadable for free. After January it will cost you $10 or so. Alternatively you can, of course, look for other software with DVD playback – my recommendation would be here the VLC player.

10. Windows 8 Shut Down

Finally, a tip that at least for the tablet users, is not part of the normal procedure – the shutdown of the operating system. On Windows, we are used to clicking “shut down”. Here, you have to open your Charms Bar and click the on/off button under “settings”.

These are our top 10 tricks and tips! Windows 8 isn’t rocket science, it just might take some getting used to.

The Google Nexus 4 was announced by Google on Monday and it looks amazing and news has come out via Twitter that it will not be released through the Telcos when it goes on sale Novemeber 13th. Soren a tweet to @ Telekom_hilft who is the Twitter help account for Deutche Telcom or T-Mobile to find out when […]

The Google Nexus 4 was announced by Google on Monday and it looks amazing and news has come out via Twitter that it will not be released through the Telcos when it goes on sale Novemeber 13th.

Sorena tweet to @ Telekom_hilft who is the Twitter help account for Deutche Telcom or T-Mobile to find out when it would be available, and the answer was it’s not. We’re curious if any other Telcos will be launching the device and how much this has to do with Google’s strategy with going direct to consumer.

The Nexus 4 features a 4.7 inch 1280 x 768 IPS Display (320 ppi), a 1.5GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon S4 Pro and 2 GB RAM. On the back of the device will be an 8 megapixel cam and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. It will also, of course, have Android 4.2 Jelly Bean onboard!

The 8 GB version of the Nexus 4 will cost $299 and the 16 GB, $349. Both will be available on the Google Play store without contract in the U.S., Britain, Australia, France, Spain, Canada and Germany starting November 13th.

We’ve known about the iPad Mini for a few days now and this morning the first reviews have hit the street about this 7.9 inch beauty from Apple. Apple has been traditionally very selective about which media they get to release the first review of their devices, it’s usually guys who have been known to […]

We’ve known about the iPad Mini for a few days now and this morning the first reviews have hit the street about this 7.9 inch beauty from Apple. Apple has been traditionally very selective about which media they get to release the first review of their devices, it’s usually guys who have been known to be pro -Apple. Regardless, we think that some good points have been presented in the reviews from the US media. We’ve rounded up the general consensus for you here but think that you should keep an eye out for more review when it hits the general public. We’ll actually be flying to Hong Kong to pick our up, then we plan on doing a very special kind of drop test.

Tim has taken on the iPad Mini test and he really does think that this is more than just a scaled-down iPad. He sees the advantage of a 7-inch model in that it can be operated easily with one hand, that is unless you’ve got small hands then the wider 4:3 ratio makes it harder to handle than the Nexus 7. Nevertheless his opinion of the device is positive. Here is an excerpt from the Engadget Review:

This is not just an Apple tablet made to a budget. This is not just a shrunken-down iPad. This is, in many ways, Apple’s best tablet yet, an incredibly thin, remarkably light, obviously well-constructed device that offers phenomenal battery life.

Joshua Topolsky has taken on the task for The Verge and also doesn’t see the iPad Mini as simply a smaller iPad but as its own category that actually supplements the normal sized iPad. Josh talks about the price of the iPad Mini being higher than its competition, but he feels that Apple provides enough incentives to buy in its superior build quality and design it is an industry leader. Here is an excerpt from his review:

There’s no tablet in this size range that’s as beautifully constructed, works as flawlessly, or has examined an incredible software selection … The iPad mini has not wrapped up the “cheapest tablet” market by any stretch of the imagination. But the “best small tablet” market? Consider it captured.

Once again, we come to the conclusion that the iPad mini does exactly what Apple has promised. It fits comfortably in one hand, because of its low weight it can be used for a long time and delivers all of the apps that you already know and love from its big brother. However, it can’t be over looked that its display doesn’t stack up to its competition.

But the lack of true HD gives the Nexus and Fire an advantage for HD video fans. In my tests, video looked just fine, but not as good as on the regular iPad.

John Gruber likes the iPad mini – but that Apple included a standard display was a miss. The Retina display has raised the bad and for Apple to use a standard definition display is a step backwards. Here is his conclusion:

If the Mini had a retina display, I’d switch from the iPad 3 in a heartbeat.As it stands, I’m going to switch anyway. Going non-retina Particularly is a bitter pill for me, but I like the iPad Mini’s size and weight so much that I’m going to swallow it.

Let’s take a look at what CNET thought ofthe iPad Mini, it has fine build quality and it’s very thin and light, but they do criticize its regular shape and the price:

The iPad Mini costs too much, especially considering the lower resolution of its 7.9-inch non-Retina display. The A5 processor is not as robust as the one in the fourth-tions iPad and iPhone 5 Typing on the smaller screen is not quite as comfy.

They also address the value of the tablet in their review:

If you want the full, polished Apple tablet experience in a smaller package, the iPad Mini is worth the premium price. Otherwise, good alternatives are available for less money.

We can’t wait to get our hands on the device ourselves, but for now we’re going to have to be satisfied with the impression of other bloggers and press.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is turning out to be the flagship handset for Windows Phone, not only because of their close relationship with Microsoft but it’s amazing camera is setting it apart from the pack. Today we’ve gotten our hands on the Lumia 920 for Unboxing but as you can see from out 18 minute […]

The Nokia Lumia 920 is turning out to be the flagship handset for Windows Phone, not only because of their close relationship with Microsoft but it’s amazing camera is setting it apart from the pack. Today we’ve gotten our hands on the Lumia 920 for Unboxing but as you can see from out 18 minute video we’ve done a little bit more then just take it out of the box.

The device has a 4.5-inch curved glass screen which they claim has the fastest LCD display shipped on any device on the market, which they claim is 2 times faster which will be leveraged by the Pure Motion HD + which is capable of recording 1080p recording. We’ve also got a 2,000mAh battery, NFC, integrated wireless charging based on the Qi standard and an 8-megapixel rear facing camera. The display packs WXGA (1,280 x 768) resolution, is 25 percent brighter than the next best panel on the market and it’s the fastest LCD that Nokia has ever shipped on a Smartphone.

The Nokia 920 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 running at 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and 1GB RAM and 32GB of on board storage.

Enough of the details, here is our unboxing and comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S3, Note 2 and the Nokia Pure View 808.

Barely 3 days out in the wild the guys from iFixit were able to get their hands on the new Micorsoft Surface RT tablet and tear it down. After painstakingly removing the locking screws under the hood the Surface RT you’ll find an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and an overall modular design. The technical guys […]

Barely 3 days out in the wild the guys from iFixit were able to get their hands on the new Micorsoft Surface RT tablet and tear it down. After painstakingly removing the locking screws under the hood the Surface RT you’ll find an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and an overall modular design. The technical guys from iFixit found that the Microsoft Surface RT is a much better performer compared to Apple’s iPad 3.

The Surface RT’s battery is pretty much designed like that of the iPad 3, which is glued to the platform. Using a spudger you could still get it and unglue it, but the whole process will take you quite some time. The Surface RT sports a 7.4 V, 31.5 Wh battery which is in the same class as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, whereas the iPad 3’s battery is made from lithium-polymer and rated at 42.5 Wh.

The inner parts of the Surface RT are mostly modular and can be removed rather easily, which also means that you can take it to the repair shop instead of sending it to a landfill. At least Microsoft is still compliant with EPEAT. Removable parts include:

front- and rear-facing cameras

volume buttons

headphone jack

The downside to the Surface RT is that the glass plane and the LCD screen are fused together, which means if you damage the RT’s screen in anyway it’s bye-bye tablet. But the guys at iFixit says that it is still repairable but any technician will charge you extra for it, because it’s not easy to separate them – even though it can be done.

There are endless videos mocking Apple and ever since the iPad Mini was announced it seems like open season on Apple. Conan O’Brien takes the latest shot at Apple’s ever expanding tablet line up. He even provides some suggestions of where things are headed, the best part of the video is the tag line he […]

We put Samsung’s Flagship Windows Phone the Ativ S up against the very successful Samsung Galaxy S3. Both handsets are 4.8 inches and are Samsung’s flagship devices, the Ativ S for Windows Phone and the S3 for Android. Let’s take a look a few aspects of each device, the Ativ S is newer hardware so […]

We put Samsung’s Flagship Windows Phone the Ativ S up against the very successful Samsung Galaxy S3. Both handsets are 4.8 inches and are Samsung’s flagship devices, the Ativ S for Windows Phone and the S3 for Android.

Let’s take a look a few aspects of each device, the Ativ S is newer hardware so the processors differ with the Atic upping the S3. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is powered by 1.4GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on top of Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU and 1GB of RAM while Samsung Ativ S is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Dual Core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM.

There isn’t much difference on the display front with the Samsung Galaxy S3 featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 306ppi on a 4.8 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen while Samsung Ativ S features a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 306ppi on a 4.8 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.

Samsung Galaxy S3 is slightly smaller, thinner and lighter (136.6 x 70.6mm / 8.6mm / 133g) than Samsung Ativ S (137.2 x 70.5mm / 8.7mm / 135g). However, the reason why I’m not particularly bothered by the Ativ S being a smidge thicker is that has a 2300 mAh cell, which is the largest battery we’ve seen yet on a Windows Phone 8 device. It’s even a little bigger than the one on the S3 which has 2100mAh battery.

You should check out the below video to get an idea of how the phones stack up against one another, we have to admit, both devices look pretty good, now all that’s left is deciding if you should go WP or Android.

What a day! Microsoft has finally launched Windows Phone 8 and as you might remember, I’ve been constantly complaining about Windows Phone 7 and 7.5! Why? Because it was not quite there! It looked and felt like it had been rushed to market, just so they could have something out there. Windows Phone 7 was […]

What a day! Microsoft has finally launched Windows Phone 8 and as you might remember, I’ve been constantly complaining about Windows Phone 7 and 7.5! Why? Because it was not quite there! It looked and felt like it had been rushed to market, just so they could have something out there.

Windows Phone 7 was one dimensional and for me as a power user a real pain in the ass… Sorry MS, I know you you got the message.
But it seems like Microsoft hs listened to their OEMs who wanted less limitations for the hardware and more importantly, they listened to the users.
We want to be able to customize and personalize our Smartphones and here we go… Microsoft’s mantra of the day was “the most personal Smartphone ever”

HTC, Samsung and Nokia have each launched flagship Smartphones for the Windows Phone platform and they’re all gorgeous. Trust me, I’ve been playing around with all of them and by gorgeous I mean in terms of design, build quality and specs.

Congrats Microsoft. You did something I’ve never expected from you. You listened to the reviewers and your customers, you’ve rethought your whole strategy together with your OEMs and you’ve launched a powerful platform and ecosystem. Now get the message out and you will see it succeed!

It feels that Google is light years ahead in terms of innovation and especially compared to Apple. Our friends from Cupertino have been playing a risk-free and safe game recently. iOS 6 got updates that Android and Windows Phone users have been using for ages. Phones are getting larger, tablets smaller, sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner and all we hear is “it’s great, amazing, spectacular, incredible” and that “it just works”

Google doesn’t need to brainwash us during their presentations. They just let you know what their new devices can do, plus they will saturate the global market with devices that are sporting the very latest components and the best specs you can find, at price points that should make Cupertino switch to DEFCON 1!

Have you looked at the price of the 32GB 3G Nexus 7? It’s gonna be $299! A 32GB iPad mini with a cellular module (ok, it’s LTE.. i hear you) is $559. That’s almost twice the price!

Or the Nexus 4 with 16GB for $349! An iPhone 5 with 16GB is how much again? $679?

Today was an amazing day for each and every Mobile Geek out there. In the next 4 weeks you’ll be able to buy amazing devices from Google, Nokia, HTC and Samsung. I mean, really fantastic phones and tablets that you’re gonna love. You can’t go wrong with any of those because Apple, Google and Microsoft pushed each other to a level, where they reached a quality standard, that’s absolutely mind blowing.

That’s what’s happening when you compete in free and open markets. This is the outcome of innovation, which is driven by competition. That’s why all these companies need to continue to invest into R&D instead of lawyers because otherwise the state of mobile computing would be somewhere near the gear that you can see in the above photo.

Chinese manufacturer ZTE has announced a new high powered low budget Smartphone, the U950 is an Android powered and it’s got a 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and 1GB of RAM. What is most interesting is the price tag, it’s only $160 but that’s for the first 100,000 consumers who place an order on […]

Chinese manufacturer ZTE has announced a new high powered low budget Smartphone, the U950 is an Android powered and it’s got a 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and 1GB of RAM. What is most interesting is the price tag, it’s only $160 but that’s for the first 100,000 consumers who place an order on November 11.

The ZTE U950 is only 9mm thick and features a 4.3-inch display running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. On the rear we’ve got a 5MP camera and VGA-resolution front camera for video calls. Sadly, the device only has 4GB of internal storage space. The handset is slated for release in China next month. There’s no word on whether this cheapo quad-core will be making its way stateside or elsewhere.

Not too long ago it was socially acceptable to walk into a classroom with just a pen and paper. Nowadays it’s rare to see a classroom that isn’t filled with laptops and tablets. Students are flooded with options: tablet, ultrabook, netbook, notebook — and it’s not an easy choice to make. The easily portable ultrabook […]

Not too long ago it was socially acceptable to walk into a classroom with just a pen and paper. Nowadays it’s rare to see a classroom that isn’t filled with laptops and tablets. Students are flooded with options: tablet, ultrabook, netbook, notebook — and it’s not an easy choice to make. The easily portable ultrabook and tablet are probably the choices to which most students will gravitate. Let’s take a look at what’s best.

To help you decide which is best for you, answer the following questions:

1. Are you studying the sciences or something technical?

2. Do you transfer data with USB’s or an external hard drive often?

3. What tasks will you use your device for in college?

Science vs. Humanities Students

If you’re studying the sciences or technology, your choice is obvious: the ultrabook. The reason is just as simple. In your course of study, you are going to need complex software for data and calculations. Tablets just don’t have that level of sophistication software-wise.

For humanities students, the choice is not so clear. Since you’ll probably be writing a lot, you’ll want to be able to type with ease. Software-wise both tablets and ultrabooks can handle what you need. If you’re keen on getting a tablet, you’ll just want a really great keyboard dock to go with it. The battery life plays a big role for these students. Tablets tend to have good battery and will last you one full day at college before you need to charge. Ultrabooks can be there, but they just can not keep up – not yet.

On an ultrabook, the larger screen make sit easier to mulitask, though some Android tablets are quite good at this already. But ultrabooks make it easier to run multiple programs simultaneously, move windows and copy content to and fro. This is, in practice, on any tablet fairly easy as well, so it’s a matter of taste. One may prefer the touch controls, while the other swears by the keyboard and trackpad. You just need to know which one you are.

USB vs. Cloud

Many professors have adopted Dropbox, university based online sharing systems and so on to provide their students with course documents and information. Many electronic minded people enjoy living in a virtual data cloud, but there are scores of humanities students who prefer email or the USB data transfers so they can print it out and make it tangible. These people will probably like an ultrabook and a printer nearby. If you’re a cloud person, a tablet might work for you.

If you often have to rely on USB sticks, ultrabooks are, in my opinion, the best option. Sure there are some Android tablets, which are equipped with full USB ports and even ones that can read files from external hard drives and store it. But it’s just not as simple. Moreover, here, the software is the limiting factor yet again.

Task Master

Now here’s the real question: What will you be using your device for? If you just want a device that you can bring with you to class to read, take notes, light sketches and view documents, a tablet could be perfect for you. If you want to use Microsoft Office of Word, tablets are just not competitive. Footnotes, formatting and sourcing are all much easier on an ultrabook. But as far as functioning as a EReader goes, tablets win hands down.

Conclusion

If your only device needs to be highly mobile and also serve as your main computer, an Ultrabook is a must. The starting price is indeed higher than that of the tablet, but if you have a Ultrabook, you have more options. If you are looking for something portable as a supplement to another computer and you can live with compromises in mobile use, I recommend a tablet. Tablets are simply excellent for reading and as an electronic document solution. The battery life, extreme light weight and price are definitely attractive too students.

The dream combination is, of course, the simultaneous use of tablet and ultrabook. Those kinds of devices are more expensive and really not aimed at the student market. They are also not yet perfected and still a bit bulky.